Letters: The positive case for daycare

Major mistake

Sir: Douglas Murray (‘Our poor deluded MPs’, 1 April) contends that John Major is widely regarded as ‘one of the worst prime ministers in living memory’. If so, that seems unfair. Although a greyish figure, Major had to operate with a narrow parliamentary majority and a fractious party. It is often forgotten that he was instrumental in establishing the foundations of peace in Northern Ireland, for which Tony Blair is perhaps given too much credit. Moreover, it is difficult to name any of Major’s successors who didn’t leave No. 10 without black marks on their record. Ranking PMs is something for history.

Clive Thursby
Hindhead, Surrey

Mother knows best

Sir: It is almost unheard of for me to disagree with Rod Liddle, but I take issue with his argument (‘Childcare: an inconvenient truth’, 25 March) that ‘daycare is not terribly good for children’ and that women who do send their children to it feel ‘horribly torn’ by the pressure to be both career women and full-time mothers.